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Mike Webster Research Papers

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Mike Webster, a former center for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and a 1997 initiate of the Pro Football Hall of Fame died at fifty because of a heart attack. Nicknamed “Iron Mike”, Webster was known for his toughness and durability during his playing days. Unfortunately, his post career life was filled with physical and psychological turmoil. In 1997, before his Hall of Fame induction the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Webster was “homeless, unemployed, deep in debt, beset with medical aliments, lacking health insurance, in the midst of divorce, in the care of a psychiatrist and on medication, and involved in a complex lawsuit over real estate investments,” according to Webster’s wife, Pamela, his psychiatrist, Dr. Jerry, his family and …show more content…

In 1995, the Board of the NFL’s retirement plan agreed that injuries sustained during his football career had caused Webster to suffer total and permanent mental disability. In addition, Webster’s doctors concurred that blows to the head that Webster accumulated over his career damaged his frontal lobe, causing cognitive dysfunction. Following his death, Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian American, physician, forensic pathologist and neuropathologist performed an autopsy on Mike Webster’s body. As Dr. Omalu was conducting the autopsy, he pursued the root of Mike’s cognitive disabilities. Furthermore, Dr. Omalu diagnosed Mike Webster with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) , a degenerative brain disease found in athletes, military veterans, and others with a history of repetitive brain trauma. This discovery highlighted the potential long-term impact the exposure to mild traumatic brain injuries, common to NFL players, can have. Furthermore, as more research about the correlation between playing football and developing CTE has been conducted this research aims to investigate how the NFL administration and players have addressed this safety …show more content…

Since the passing of Mike Webster in 2002, a number of high-profile former NFL players have been diagnosed with CTE. High-profile players such as Ken Stabler, the former quarterback for the Oakland Raiders and 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee and John Mackey, the former tight end for the New York Giants and 1992 Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee. And similarly, to Mike Webster, players diagnosed with CTE, faced cognitive difficulties and behavioral change during their time on earth. For example, before Justin Strzelczyk, former offensive lineman for the Pittsburg Steelers, died in a car crash when he hit a tank truck while driving 90 miles per hour against the flow of traffic in an attempt to evade the cops, Dr. Jim Doran diagnosed Justin with manic behavior, psychoses and hospitalization necessary. In addition, his wife felt “the man who passed away [wasn’t] the man [she] was married to.” More recently, Aaron Hernandez, former New England Patriots tight end, committed suicide whiles he was serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. After Dr. Ann Mckee, a neuropathologist at Boston University conducted a brain autopsy on Aaron Hernandez’s brain, she determined Hernandez had stage three CTE (out of 4 stages) and his brain damage was usually observed in someone 20

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1021 Words | 5 Pages

In this examination, Dr. Omalu found a chronic disease that he believed to be caused by playing in the NFL (Kirk). As stated in the film by Steve Fainaru, “And that decision would change the NFL, because if Webster’s brain had not been examined, I don’t honestly think that we would be where we are at today” (Kirk). Without this examination the investigation would not have occurred, and therefore, the muckraking would not have occurred.

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452 Words | 2 Pages

In the craze of the game are fans ignoring the risks, brutality, and casualties of the sport? Acute head injuries are commonplace in the NFL. David Weisman, a neurologist and author for Seed Magazine, explains in his article “Disposable Heroes” some of the mental damages caused by football. Weisman expounds that

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2304 Words | 10 Pages

Former NFL superstar tight end Aaron Hernandez was convicted of executing a man. He killed him with six bullets inside an industrial park, he and was sentenced to life in prison (“Aaron Hernandez’s”). Concussions are a scary reality of playing National Football League (NFL). Every year there are more and more players that are having season ending, or career ending injuries due to hits to the head.

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699 Words | 3 Pages

He continued to go to school at the University of Pittsburgh, where he completed a fellowship in neuropathy in 2002 and a master’s in public health and epidemiology in 2004. Omalu examined the body of Mike Webster, the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers former center, while working at the coroner’s office in Pittsburgh. Webster suffered from a heart attack at age 50, which caused his death. Before his death, however, the former center was

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977 Words | 4 Pages

“Concussion”, written and directed by Peter Landesman was released Christmas Day 2015 and it depicts the based on truth, story of Dr. Bennet Omalu’s findings with regards to damage sustained by football players who have repeated traumas to their head. Anybody who loves films based on truth will find “Concussion” to be well delivered. The plot involves Omalu, who initially conducts an autopsy on Mike Webster, a former NFL football hall of fame player. This ultimately leads him to finding a disorder CTE, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, which turns out to be a common thread linking a pattern of similar deaths of other football players.

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511 Words | 3 Pages

Because of an armed robbery and kidnapping that took place in 2007, prosecutors found him guilty and sentenced him to 33 years, but he will have the chance at parole in 2017. Dr. Bennet Omalu, a brain doctor who inspired the Concussion movie, says that he believes O.J. has CTE. This condition has become common for a lot of former NFL players. After they died, they were diagnosed with CTE. The problem with CTE is that you cannot diagnose it until after the person's death because you have to take a tissue of their brain to send it in to testing.

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1105 Words | 5 Pages

In the true story based movie and the documentary, the dangers of head injuries in football are laid out for the viewer. Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered the brain injury chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE; however, the NFL was in denial about the effects football had on the brain and had on causing CTE. I believe that the NFL’s denial to the accusations were detrimental to many football players and that serious consideration should be taken into the way football is played overall. When Dr. Omalu originally diagnosed CTE on Mike Webster and the NFL denied that football was the cause for his death and disease.

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992 Words | 4 Pages

Some of the tests revealed damage to the amygdala which controls mood. Additionally the NFL players scored much lower on memory tests, and had worse verbal skills (Hedin, 2015) 5. Due to the recent number of suicides & violent crimes committed by former players, there is more of a need to research the correlation between the head injuries in the NFL and brain disease even more C. Thesis Point 3: What steps the National Football league has taken to protect players long term health and safety 1. With the scrutiny the NFL has come under, they have developed a new protocol for the diagnoses and treatment of players with concussions 2. Under the new protocol, any player who exhibits sings of a concussion, even the most remote sign, must come out of the game and be checked out by the medical staff, they may not return to the same game if they undergo tests for concussion.

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622 Words | 3 Pages

The first example is future hall of famer Junior Seau. In 2012, he was the first of many NFL players to get diagnosed with CTE. On May 2, 2012 he was found dead at his home in California with a fatal gunshot wound to the chest (“What is CTE”). Later he went in for an autopsy and it revealed that he had CTE.

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919 Words | 4 Pages

Brain Injury in Professional Football A reportable concussion had been described as change in brain function induced by trauma. It was demonstrated by: first, altered consciousness, including being amnesic, confused, or rendered insentient. Second, symptoms and signs usually accompanying post-concussion syndrome, such as, persistent headaches, impaired balance, syncope, cognitive dysfunction, hearing loss, blurred vision, drowsiness, lethargy, fatigue, memory disturbance, and difficulty in carrying out routine activities (Casson, Viano and Powell 471). The Concussion Legacy Foundation disclosed that CTE, a degenerative brain disease caused by brain trauma, had been diagnosed among football players from more than 100 college football programs (Concussion Legacy Foundation).

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528 Words | 3 Pages

The long-term side effects of these traumatic injuries have led spectators and doctors to speculate the dangers of head on collision in sports. Furthermore, concussions lead to TBI which leads to depression and problems with their functioning. Brain injuries have led to famous NFL players committing suicide and losing their families and

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626 Words | 3 Pages

The sport of football has taken a lot of heat and negative publicity over the past several years. CTE and the dangers associated with the sport have been a focal point of discussion within all levels of football including the NFL as a league and its current and past players. Despite the obvious risks and injuries associated with the game, I believe that football is still one of the most popular and rewarding sports kids can play. If you ask a former player, even some who have suffered through a number of injuries, you’ll hear them speak with affection and praise about their time spent on the gridiron and with their teammates.

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721 Words | 3 Pages

If American Football is an art, then its athletes paint with blood. This should surprise no one; the gridiron plays host to modernity’s most violent sport. In this unforgiving environment, it is all to common for former stars to flare out with career-ending injuries. As I kicked off my research on the National Football League (NFL), I intended to report on these injuries. With a premise on my mind and a paper in my sights, I headed to JumboSearch to begin my investigation.

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1340 Words | 6 Pages

Football is widely regarded as a dangerous sport full of hard hits and collisions. With recent groundbreaking discoveries related to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), parents, doctors, and fans are starting to wonder about how safe football is. CTE has now been proven to cause depression, memory loss, and even suicide in former NFL, college, and some high school players. Although there is no way around these facts, people should be encouraged by the progress football is making to keep players safe. The greatest safety question about football is the adequacy of the equipment players use.

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1035 Words | 5 Pages

Omalu had innocently believed that the NFL would offer a positive reception to his study that exposed the dangers posed upon football participants’ mental health. Contrary to his expectations, the NFL demanded for an extraction of the article from 2005’s July issue of Neurosurgery. Three editors from the NFL’s committee for Mild Brain Injury wrote about serious flaws they had come across in his research. Other people who had been affected apart from Webster were the likes of Terry Long. After the first report denial by NFL, Omalu pushed forward with a second brain examination on Terry Long who had showed signs of distressing behavior after his immediate retirement.

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